Gemstar-TV Guide, which has experienced mostly misfortune with its publishing division in recent years (it shut down Inside TV just seven months after its high-profile launch, and TV Guide itself is struggling to find a steady audience with its new format) has sold one of its less flashy titles. SkyMall, the familiar in-flight catalog, has been purchased by a group of investors; one of them, ZelnickMedia Corp., owns the Lillian Vernon catalog. SkyMall Inc. sold for $52 million. The price includes the print catalog, the Web site, and the loyalty marketing business.

Film Threat, the online pub which boasts that, unlike most other Hollywood magazines, it doesn't suck up to the industry, demonstrated once again this week that it knows how to roil the waters. It has named its Frigid 50, actors and concepts that grew so cold in 2005 that, for all intents and purposes, they're now dead. Topping the list: Tom Cruise ("a man on a career-suicide mission"). No. 2: Why, none other than Cruise's intended, Katie Holmes. Others near the top of the list include Jennifer Lopez ("she's become ... a commercial liability"), Russell Crowe, and (of course!) Tom …

What most other news outlets missed late yesterday in reporting the decision by ABC to install Elizabeth Vargas and Bob Woodruff as co-anchors of "World News Tonight" is that the move came about only after the network's No. 1 news star, Charles Gibson, refused to sign. According to the The New York Times' Jacques Steinberg and Bill Carter, the energetic Gibson (he currently co-hosts "Good Morning America" while also anchoring ABC's nightly newscast) said he was interested in assuming the job left open following Peter Jennings' death if he could stay on until at least the 2008 presidential election. The …

"Who else devotes life-force energy to promoting its competition?" asks the Dallas Business Journal's Huntley Patton, who argues that newspapers all across America must stop covering television shows and television celebrities with such obvious glee. Indeed, why waste so much ink on movie stars and recording artists? "People who prefer television simply watch more television--they don't and won't read newspapers. Why chase them?" bleats Patton, who joins an increasingly loud chorus of newspaper guys who believe their industry is hurting because, in one way or another, it's been misguided. "Papers should stick to local information and original reporting.  That's …

Conde Nast's Glamour magazine is extending its brand to a new medium (movies) and a new platform (the Internet) with the launch of Reel Moments, a series of short films based on stories submitted by its readers.  The films, which run between five and 15 minutes, will be available at Glamour.com beginning this Friday.  Mediaweek reports that each of the five films in the Reel Moments series will feature products from its sponsors, which include Mercury,  Elizabeth Arden, Nokia, and Bebe. Conde Nast told Mediaweek that the participating companies will benefit from the buzz surrounding these grabby little Net …

Well, it was probably inevitable. Playboy Enterprises, which has been moving aggressively into the world of digital entertainment, has announced the launch of "bodcasting." The audio programs will be available five times a week at Playboy.com. Among the casts to be offered: "Ask Hef Anything" and "Joke of the Day." There will also be a gaggle of breathy cyber girls offering advice on matters of interest to men. Of course. The downloadable podcasts--er, bodcasts--will be free.

A number of national retailers, most notably Banana Republic, are already selling merchandise tied in to the Sony Pictures movie "Memoirs of a Geisha," which debuts this weekend. But what differentiates this marketing effort from others between studios and mass retailers is that the merchandise does not blare the film's title; instead, it is subtle. So subtle, actually, that some shoppers may not be aware of the movie tie-in at all. According to a piece in the Los Angeles Times, Banana Republic, The Republic of Tea, and others have already begun selling products that refer to "Geisha" but do not …

The Wall Street Journal reports that Time Warner and Microsoft are near an accord that would have the two corporate monoliths combining certain advertising functions at AOL and MSN, their online units. The deal could be signed by year-end, says the Journal. Or it might not happen at all if, at the last minute, Time Warner determines to "deepen its relationship with Google at Microsoft's expense." The negotiations are set against the prospect of a Carl Icahn-led proxy fight aimed at replacing TW shareholders. It's not known what Icahn think of a TW-Microsoft alliance, although he has said repeatedly that …

The influential American Family Association, led by Donald Wildmon, has called off a threatened boycott of Ford Motor Co. because the automotive manufacturer agreed late last week to stop advertising its Land Rover and Jaguar brands in gay magazines. "They've heard our concerns; they are acting on our concerns," Wildmon said in trumpeting his group's victory. A Ford spokesperson, noting that most of the company's other brands were not currently booking space in gay-themed publications, said to the press that the decision concerning Land Rover and Jaguar was simply "business" and not necessarily a reaction to outside pressure. The AFA, …

Obviously eager to stay in the public eye and enrich himself at the same time (nice work if you can get it), Donald Trump tells The Wall Street Journal that he is contemplating the launch of the Trump Shopping Network. One option mentioned by sources would be a deal that would pair Trump's network with NBC's ShopNBC online site, which has been struggling. That would enable Trump to retain his relationship with the network that airs "The Apprentice" while linking with a Web site majority-owned by Minneapolis-based Value Vision Media. In that scenario, the Trump Shopping Network would instantly have …